Day: 15/12/2011

Sarah Rosemary at Sunny Side Up and I are hosting our own Reverb11, a series of prompts to look back on 2011 and manifest the new year. Please check our Reverb11 pages for details, and join in!

Prompt for December 15: Thanks: Give yourself fifteen minutes to write down fifteen things for which you were most thankful in 2011. Write down the first fifteen things that pop into your head. Go on – set the timer; set your watch; set the stopclock on your iPhone!

(Admittedly, I wrote these under time pressure, but I’ve gone back and edited them without time constraint)

1) The older woman friend who gave the advice: Never wear nice underwear on a first date. Don’t shave your legs, either. Takes away the temptation to take off your clothes.

2) Those utterly wild weeks in London, getting out the shakes of a few bad years (nights at A—; nights at B—; dancing till the sun came up then wandering around till breakfast was served; nights like the ones I used to have when I was much younger); the quiet ones under pressure, too (that night before a late sunset in Berkeley Square; the quiet dinners and nightcaps; running in Hyde Park)

3) Spa Castle

4) The Women of Winesday; the best bloodymarys in the world; brunches that last into dinners; bad ideas that become excellent ones; the people who make my house a home

5) My family — the one from which I came and the one I have made, the one my parents have made

6) Plaid; fisherman sweaters; cashmere

7) Grace

8 ) Finish lines, and those who make them possible.

9) That moment when someone reaches for me; the awkward feeling of hand on hand; kisses on the forehead

10) 10 Toenails

11) My best friend of 19 years

12) The top of the mountain and the journey thereto

13) The places that are safe and dangerous; my life in airports; the hotels where things began; the hotels where things ended